Darkness Surrendered (Primal Heat Trilogy #3) (Order of the Blade)
Page 38
Cort turned back to her, and a muscle ticked in his cheek.
For a moment, they simply stared at each other. She raised her arms. “Hold me,” she whispered. “Please.”
He hesitated for a second, and then his hand snaked out and he shackled her wrist. He yanked once, and she tumbled into him. Their bodies smacked hard as he caught her around the waist, his hands hot on her bare back.
She threw her arms around his neck and sagged into him. He wrapped his arms around her, holding her tightly against him. With only her bra and his T-shirt between them, the heat of his body was like a furnace, numbing her pain. His name slipped out in a whisper, and she pressed her cheek against his chest. She focused on his masculine scent. She took solace in the feel of another human’s touch, in the safety of being held in arms powerful enough to ward off the grief trying to overtake her.
His hand tunneled in her hair, and he buried his face in the curve of her neck, his body shaking against hers.
“Cort—” She started to lift her head to look at him, to see if he was crying, but he tightened his grip on her head, forcing her face back to his chest, refusing to allow her to look at him.
Keeping her out.
Isolating her.
She realized he wasn’t a partner in her grief. She was alone, still alone, always alone.
All the anguish came cascading back. Raw loneliness surged again, and she shoved away from him as sobs tore at her throat. She couldn’t deal with being held by him when the sense of intimacy was nothing but an illusion. “Leave me alone.”
Kaylie whirled away from him, keeping her head ducked. She didn’t want to look at him. She needed space to find her equilibrium again and rebuild her foundation.
“Damn it, Kaylie.” Cort grabbed her arm and spun her back toward him.
She held up her hands to block him, her vision blurred by the tears streaming down her face. “Don’t—”
His arms snapped around her and he hauled her against him even as she fought his grip. “No! Leave me alone—”
His mouth descended on hers.
Not a gentle kiss.
A kiss of desperation and grief and need. Of the need to control something. Of raw human passion for life, for death, for the touch of another human being.
And it broke her.
Stephanie Rowe Bio
Four-time RITA® Award nominee and Golden Heart® Award winner Stephanie Rowe is a nationally bestselling author with more than twenty published books with major New York publishers such as Grand Central, HarperCollins, Harlequin, Dorchester and Sourcebooks.
She has received coveted starred reviews from Booklist and high praise from Publisher’s Weekly, calling out her “…snappy patter, goofy good humor and enormous imagination… [a] genre-twister that will make readers…rabid for more.” Stephanie’s work has been nominated as YALSA Quick Pick for Reluctant Readers.
Stephanie is published in paranormal romance, romantic suspense, contemporary romance, teen “girl power” fiction, middle grade fantasy and motivational nonfiction.
A former attorney, Stephanie lives in Boston where she plays tennis, works out and is happily writing her next book. Want the inside scoop? Visit Stephanie online at one of the following hot spots:
www.stephanierowe.com
http://twitter.com/stephanierowe2
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Select List of Other Books by Stephanie Rowe
(For a complete book list, please visit www.stephanierowe.com)
PARANORMAL ROMANCE
The Order of the Blade Series
Darkness Awakened
(Book One of the Primal Heat trilogy)
Darkness Seduced
(Book Two of the Primal Heat trilogy)
Darkness Surrendered
(Book Three of the Primal Heat trilogy)
Darkness Reborn
(Order of the Blade, Book Four)
Available Summer 2012
The Soulfire Series
Kiss at Your Own Risk (Book One)
Touch if You Dare (Book Two)
Hold Me if You Can (Book Three)
The Immortally Sexy Series
Date Me Baby, One More Time (Book One)
Must Love Dragons (Book Two)
He Loves Me, He Loves Me Hot (Book Three)
Sex & the Immortal Bad Boy (Book Four)
ROMANTIC SUSPENSE
The Alaska Heat Series
Ice (Book One)
Chill (Book Two)
CONTEMPORARY ROMANCE
Birch Crossing Series
Dawn at Birch Crossing (Book One)
Available Summer 2012
NONFICTION
The Feel Good Life
FOR TEENS
A Girlfriend’s Guide to Boys Series
Putting Boys on the Ledge (Book One)
Studying Boys (Book Two)
Who Needs Boys? (Book Three)
Smart Boys & Fast Girls (Book Four)
Stand Alone Novels
The Fake Boyfriend Experiment
FOR PRE-TEENS
The Forgotten Series:
Penelope Moonswoggle, The Girl Who Could Not Ride a Dragon (Book One)
Penelope Moonswoggle & the Accidental Doppelganger (Book Two) Available 2013
Table of Contents
CHAPTER ONE
CHAPTER TWO
CHAPTER THREE
CHAPTER FOUR
CHAPTER FIVE
CHAPTER SIX
CHAPTER SEVEN
CHAPTER EIGHT
CHAPTER NINE
CHAPTER TEN
CHAPTER ELEVEN
CHAPTER TWELVE
CHAPTER THIRTEEN
CHAPTER FOURTEEN
CHAPTER FIFTEEN
CHAPTER SIXTEEN
CHAPTER SEVENTEEN
CHAPTER EIGHTEEN
CHAPTER NINETEEN
CHAPTER TWENTY
CHAPTER TWENTY-ONE
CHAPTER TWENTY-TWO
CHAPTER TWENTY-THREE
CHAPTER TWENTY-FOUR
CHAPTER TWENTY-FIVE
CHAPTER TWENTY-SIX
CHAPTER TWENTY-SEVEN
CHAPTER TWENTY-EIGHT
CHAPTER TWENTY-NINE
CHAPTER THIRTY
CHAPTER THIRTY-ONE
CHAPTER THIRTY-TWO
CHAPTER THIRTY-THREE
Sneak Peek: DARKNESS REBORN
Sneak Peek: DAWN AT BIRCH CROSSING
Sneak Peek: KISS AT YOUR OWN RISK
Sneak Peek: ICE
Stephanie Rowe Bio
Select List of Other Books by Stephanie Rowe